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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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THE OLD GUARD; THE FAMOUS 
"FACULTY OF FOUR;" THE MISSION 
AND FUTURE OF THE COLLEGE; ITS 
DEBT TO AMHERST COLLEGE, HARVARD 
COLLEGE AND OTHER INSTITUTIONS. 



READ AT THE FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
OPENING OF THE MASSACHUSETTS AGRICUL- 
TURAL COLLEGE, OCT. 2, i907, BY WILLIAM 
HENRY BOWKER OF BOSTON, CLASS OF 1871. 



THE OLD GUARD; THE FAMOUS 
"FACULTY OF FOUR;" THE MISSION 
AND FUTURE OF THE COLLEGE; ITS 
DEBT TO AMHERST COLLEGE, HARVARD 
COLLEGE AND OTHER INSTITUTIONS. 



^ 



READ AT THE FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
OPENING OF THE MASSACHUSETTS AGRICUL- 
TURAL COLLEGE, OCT. 2, i907, BY WILLIAM 

HENRY BOWKER OF BOSTON, CLASS OF 1871. 
II 



«5 



BOSTON WRIGHT AND POTTER PRINTING COMPANY 

EIGHTEEN POST OFFICE SQUARE NINETEEN HUNDRED AND EIGHT 



THE OLD GUARD; THE FAMOUS "FACULTY OF FOUR;" 
THE MISSION AND FUTURE OF THE COLLEGE ; ITS 
DEBT TO AMHERST COLLEGE, HARVARD COLLEGE 
AND OTHER INSTITUTIONS. 



Read at the Fortieth Anniversary of the Opening of the Massachusetts Agri- 
cultural College, Oct. 2, 1907, bt William Henry Bowker 
OF Boston, Class op 1871. 



Forty years ago to-day (Oct. 2, 1867), the Massachusetts Agricultural Col- 
lege opened its doors to the world. In commercial parlance it has paid one 
hundred cents on the dollar and more than one hundred fold on the invest- 
ment. It has fulfilled the wildest hopes of its founders, and especially of its 
most enthusiastic champion, Marshall P. Wilder, then a far-seeing merchant 
of Boston, the son of a New Hampshire farmer. 

It was as beautiful an October morning as this is to-day, when the " Old 
Guard" — the pioneer class of 1871, of which I was a member — met on this 
campus, then a farm field of orchard and mowing, subdivided with Virginia 
rail fences. Some of the Old Guard were dressed in home-made clothes, faded 
at that, and some in broadcloth and fine linen; for they came, as predicted by 
Judge French, our first president, from town and city, and from every station in 
life. This company of 50 or 60 green boys, as verdant as the farms from which 
many of them came, were huddled, like so many sheep, into small class rooms 
for the entrance examinations. Some had left home on the spur of the moment, 
without preparation for this ordeal, and had never before seen printed exam- 
ination papers. They were formidable indeed. Here are two samples from 
the one in mathematics: — 

Seven men laid a piece of wall 65 feet long in 12 days. Again, 11 men laid a 
wall of the same kind in 10 days. How long was it? 

Another: — 

A prisoner's cell is 7 feet long, 5 feet wide and 6J feet high. What would it 
cost to paint the whole inner surface, at 31^ cents per square yard? 

I am credibly informed that these problems are easy ones, but truth com- 
pels me to state that at least one member of the Old Guard was conditioned 
in mathematics. 



I suppose there will never be any improvement in the method of admitting 
students to the higher institutions of learning; but I believe the one employed 
at the opening of this college is the best I know of, for it evidently was based 
on the looks or "hang" of the boy, rather than on his attainments. It cer- 
tainly fitted the case of some of us, and therefore I am bound to commend it 
to other institutions. It is my recollection that every boy was admitted, — 
some with conditions, it is true; but I do not recall that any of us were ever 
required, or even expected, to make up the conditions. 

The authorities of forty years ago, the famous "Faculty of Four," were 
wise, far-seeing men. They realized that a college could not start without 
students, and knew the advantage of a large entering class; therefore they 
probably decided to make the best of the situation, to take us all in for better 
or for worse, and to do the necessary weeding out later on. That they did 
not do much severe weeding is evidenced by the fact that the Old Guard, 
which entered with 56 members, graduated with 27, — a larger proportion of 
the entering class than has since prevailed in this college, or than usually pre- 
vails in other institutions. 

The Location op the College, and President French. 

I suppose the location o£ the college in this town, forty-three years ago, is 
largely due to the efforts of Col. William S. Clark, then professor of chemistry 
in Amherst College, and to Levi Stockbridge, a young farmer in Hadley. It 
was they, assisted by others in the State, who defeated in the Legislature the 
plan to combine the college with Bussey Institute, which was then, and is 
now, the school of agriculture connected with Harvard College. By almost a 
unanimous vote the Legislature determined that it should be started as an 
independent institution; that it should stand or fall on its record and by itself, 
— a wise decision, as time has proved, for it was regarded as a joke in some 
quarters, and frequently laughed at. Its location, however, was no mean 
contest, as the town of Amherst was not only in competition with the most 
powerful college in the State, but with such towns as Springfield, Chicopee, 
Northampton, Lexington and many others. It was located at Amherst, on 
May 25, 1864, by a vote of the trustees, which stood 10 to 4, afterwards 
made unanimous; but a compromise had been previously effected, by which 
one-third of the income from the funds derived from the sale of the govern- 
ment lands was given to the Institute of Technology for instruction in the 
mechanic arts, and from which this college was thereby relieved. I am inclined 
to think that the location of the college in this town, in view of what the town 
and the old college offered and had done in the cause of agricultural educa- 
tion, was a wise move, on the whole, and that the division of the funds and of 
the work to be done was an advantage to both the college and the Institute 
of Technology. 

The college was, perhaps, unfortunate in having three presidents in the first 
three years of its incorporated existence, and before it opened its doors. Its 
first president, Henry F. French, was the son of a New Hampshire farmer, a 
graduate of Dartmouth College and a lawyer by profession, having served on 



the bench. I did not know Judge French well, but I am informed that he was 
a keen, sensitive man, with a good mind, highly trained and well informed, 
rather distant in his manner, but of a kindly nature. He was a clear thinker, 
a terse writer and an authority on several agricultural subjects, — a man who 
was much in advance of his time in farm precept and practice. If he was a 
patrician in his looks and manner, he was certainly democratic in his sympa- 
thies and in his proposed plan of organization and development of this college; 
therefore, why he was allowed to resign the presidency at the end of his first 
year I am at a loss to understand. It was given out that he resigned because 
of a disagreement in the Board of Trustees as to the location of the buildings, 
he standing for the Olmsted plan, which, according to tradition, placed the 
buildings on the Stockbridge Road, where Wilder Hall and Clark Hall are 
now located. Personally, I think he was right; but it seems, at this distance, 
a small matter to quarrel over, and, if it were the real reason, too trivial to 
cause his resignation." I think it was the impression at the time, and recently 
confirmed by his son, Daniel Chester French, that the Board and his father 
were in disagreement as to the policy of the college; but the nature of that 
disagreement I have not been able to ascertain. Judging, however, by his first 
report, he must have stood for an institution of broad scope, as provided in 
the deed of gift from the general government. I consider this report, or essay, 
on education, a classic in agricultural literature, and deserving of re-publica- 
tion. Here are some gems taken from it: — 

Our college is to be established as a part of the great scheme of public educa- 
tion; not in opposition to our grammar schools and high schools, but in harmony 
with them; not as a rival to our other excellent colleges, but as a co-worker with 
them in a common cause. 

Discussing agricultural education in England, he says: — 

An agricultural college based upon repubUcan institutions, and adapted to 
them, will differ essentially from any college existing in a country controlled by 
an aristocracy. Aristocratic governments are constructed upon the idea of in- 
equality in property, in education, and, therefore, in political rights and power. 
We use the word "therefore," because wealth and education, monopolized by any 
class in any country, will draw to that class the poUtical control of that country. 
. . . The comfortable farmer of England, on his thousand acres of leased land, is 
as unconcerned about public affairs as one of his own fat bullocks. He trusts his 
spiritual affairs to the church, and his poHtical affairs to his landlord, and cares 
not what party rules, provided the markets are good. . . . RepubUcanism has 
undertaken in America to recast society into a system of equaUty. . . . Its purpose 
is to diffuse education and property among all the people; to give as nearly as 
possible every child an even start in the world. . . . Therefore, in deciding on a 
course of study and discipline for an agricultural college, we must ever remember 
that we live under a republican and not an aristocratic government. 

Answering the question that the college may educate away from the farm, 
he says: — 

We apprehend that no parent desires so to educate his son as to cheat him into 
a false belief on this point. No! give him education in the truth, and when he is 



6 

graduated, let his stand-point be elevated enough to overlook the whole country. 
. . . Let him go where duty and interest call him, well qualified for whatever he 
may undertake; and his father's blessing will not be withheld. 

He closes with this splendid thought, which is particularly apt at this time, 
when we are met to consider rural progress and betterment: — 

A rural life, well lived, is no doubt the happiest of all, and the most healthful 
for soul and body. The words of the poet are golden truth, 

"Happy the man who hath escaped the town. 
Him did an angel bless, when he was born," 
and let it be a part of our mission so to teach. 

Forty years ago it took a man of courage and convictions and of broad 
vision, trained in the old school for the law, to leave his profession and the 
classic shades of Cambridge, where he then resided, to become the head of an 
institution that proposed to make agriculture its leading subject; to drop out 
Greek and Latin, and substitute therefor the sciences and arts related to agri- 
culture; and to include, also, manual training in its curriculum, — a distinct 
and radical departure at that time. It is no secret that it was a great disap- 
pointment to him to give up this work because of radical differences between 
himself and his Board of Trustees; but I believe history will accord Henry F, 
French a larger place in the annals of this college and in the cause of agricul- 
tural education than he has held heretofore. 

Judge French was followed by Prof. Paul A. Chadbourne of Williams Col- 
lege, a graduate of that institution. He was a forceful yet charming scholarly 
man, who took a broad view of the work and future of this college. Unfortu- 
nately, at the end of his first year he was forced to resign because of illness, 
being attacked by hemorrhage of the lungs. Although with us but a few 
months at this period (later he was again made president), he left an enduring 
mark, chiefly in clearly outlining, as he did in his first report to the Legisla- 
ture, the scope and policy of the college, charting, as it were, a course almost 
identical with French's, which we have pretty closely followed to the present 
time. 

The Famous "Faculty of Four." 

The first catalogue of the college records 56 students in the opening year, a 
Board of Trustees of 17 members, a Board of Overseers of 36 members, and 
a faculty of 4 members. That original and famous "Faculty of Four" con- 
sisted of William S. Clark, president and professor of botany and horticulture, 
and director of the botanical gardens (then existing only on paper); Levi 
Stockbridge, farm superintendent and instructor in agriculture; Ebenezer S. 
Snell, professor of mathematics; and Henry H. Goodell, professor of modern 
languages and instructor in gymnastics and military tactics. These four men, 
then in the prime of life, were the first teachers and leaders of the Old Guard. 
They were a well-balanced and inspiring team, equal to every emergency, — 
and there were many of them in the early days. 

The third president of the college, Col. William S. Clark of Amherst, was a 



product of western Massachusetts and its institutions; a man forty-two years 
of age, of fine presence, of splendid mental and physical vigor; a lover of 
good horses, who always drove a spanking team; a man who had served with 
distinction in the civil war; a forceful speaker and writer; a splendid organ- 
izer; and a briUiant teacher, who inspired youth to better things. In modern 
slang he would be called a "hustler," for he had a way of getting there a little 
sooner than anybody else. To illustrate: when our college won the first race 
in 1871, at Springfield, in the National College Rowing Association, defeating 
Harvard and Brown, — the pioneer class contributing, by the way, half the 
winning crew, — Clark came tearing into Amherst behind a team of high- 
steppers, hat off, crying, at the top of his voice, "We've won! We've won! " 
That race of Clark's against time, from Springfield to Amherst, was charac- 
teristic of the man. 

Although not a profound scholar, he was splendidly equipped to become 
the president of this institution. He was not only a graduate of Amherst Col- 
lege, and had taken his doctor's degree in chemistry at the University of Got- 
tingen, Germany, but at the time of his election he was professor of chemistry 
and botany in the old college, and had devoted much thought to the study of 
these subjects as applied to agriculture. This splendid preparation, together 
with his service on the Board of Agriculture and his vigorous work to secure 
the location of the college in Amherst, made him the natural successor of 
French and Chadbourne; and undoubtedly, at that juncture, a better-fitted 
man than either to inaugurate the beginning of a new departure in educa- 
tion in the State and in the nation, our institution then being the third agri- 
cultural college founded in the country. 

Clark, in his first report to the Legislature, in 1868, writes as follows: — 

Encoiiraged by the successful opening and prosperous condition of the institu- 
tion, the trustees confidently hope that the college which Massachusetts has 
honored with her name and pledged herself to maintain forever, and which is 
peculiarly the people's college, will receive from your honorable body the means 
necessary to carry out, in a credible manner, the plan adopted for its organization. 

How many times afterwards were Colonel Clark and Professor Stockbridge 
compelled to plead with the Legislature, and even forced to use their private 
funds and endorse to the local banks the paper of the college, to keep it going! 
But Clark was a man of imagination, who saw the need of this institution, 
and who had unbounded confidence in the ultimate good faith of the State 
toward it; and so he worked on. 

Clark Hall, now completed and to be dedicated to-morrow to botanical 
training and research, is a fitting monument to the first aggressive and inspir- 
ing president of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, who left in this State, 
as in Japan, where he founded the first agricultural college of that country, an 
enduring record in the cause of education. 

The next man in that famous "Faculty of Four" was Levi Stockbridge, first 
appointed farm superintendent and superintendent of new buildings. Later 
he became instructor in agriculture, from which he rose to be professor of 



agriculture, and finally president of the college. His great work is written all 
through the annals of this institution, long before it was incorporated and 
located, — on the Board of Agriculture, in the Legislature, on the platform, 
and eventually as a member of the faculty and president of the college. 

While Clark was the aggressive leader and undoubtedly the hero of the 
boys of my time, Stockbridge was the shrewd, level-headed man of the faculty, 
the balance-wheel, the "father confessor," the "ever-present help in time of 
need." He, like Clark, had unbounded faith in the future of the college and 
in the good faith of the State towards it. 

Stockbridge was thirty-seven years of age when he came to this institution, — . 
a tall, thin, vsary, untiring farmer, who could work all day without food, if 
necessary, and still keep fresh for the day's work before him. He was a contri- 
bution from the public schools, — a seK-educated man, so called, which I 
believe is now considered a misnomer. In that remarkable faculty he was 
no doubt the peer, if not the superior, in native wit and capacity. As he stood 
for agricultural education not alone in the college but throughout the State, a 
fitting monument to him would be a building to be known as Stockbridge Hall 
or the agricultural building, the keystone of all the buildings now erected or 
hereafter to be erected on this campus. 

The third important man in that first faculty is our late, lovable Goodell, — 
a boy with us in '67; the general utility man of the faculty, teaching all the 
languages (modern, and ancient if necessary), besides gymnastics and military 
tactics; also a monitor in the early days, — the appointed guardian of our 
moral and physical welfare. He was an excellent disciplinarian, . a splendid 
teacher, and a man looking for the good in everybody, which he invariably 
found and brought out. Great in his goodness of character and life, and of 
charming personality, he left a lasting impress on the annals of this institution. 

As president of the college, in which capacity he served for nineteen years 
(the longest period of service up to the present time), he did notable work. 
When he took the helm the college was still not sure of its course; but when 
death called him from his duties he had steered the institution into safe waters. 
His greatest work in the cause of education was done at Washing- 
ton, where, as chairman of the national committee representing the land- 
grant colleges and experiment stations, he spent much time seeking and finally 
obtaining from Congress the recognition and financial support which these 
rapidly growing institutions required to keep pace with the demands made 
upon them. His frank, open, sincere manner, coupled with a cheerful nature, 
although at times he was a great physical sufferer, enabled him to succeed 
where others had failed. The son of a missionary, born in Turkey and edu- 
cated in a classical institution, he devoted practically his whole life to the cause 
of industrial and vocational education. As a lover of good literature he in- 
spired a similar love in many of his students; and his greatest monument in 
the college is the library, which is considered one of the richest in agricultural 
literature, and which some day should be housed in a suitable building, to be 
called the Goodell Library. 

In speaking of the "Faculty of Four" we must not pass by that dear little, 
dried-up, sparkling professor of mathematics, loaned us from Amherst Col- 



9 

lege, — Ebenezer Snell. He was with us but a year, but he taught mathe- 
matics so thoroughly and in such an interesting way that he influenced some 
of the brilliant men of the class to take up higher mathematics, and eventually 
to become distinguished engineers. He was as sweet in his life and example 
as he was great in his profession; but he had no use for a numskull in mathe- 
matics, so some of us never got very close to him. I recall that one day the 
present clerk of the city court of Springfield was called upon to demonstrate 
a problem in geometry, step by step, and he "flunked," as usual, — as did 
some others. Snell said to him, " If you were going up a ladder, and some of 
the rounds were missing, how would you get up?" and the young man re- 
torted, "I'd shin up." "That would be possible in the case of a ladder," 
said the smiling professor, "but you will find that you cannot 'shin up' mathe- 
matics." 

The "Big Four" and the Growth in Forty Years. 

In the fall of 1869, the faculty, as printed in the catalogue, had increased 
from 4 to 12. Of the 12, only 5 were resident members, one of whom was 
Charles Anthony Goessmann, who has recently celebrated his eightieth birth- 
day and his thirty-ninth year of service in the college, — the last link between 
the old and the new, the last living member of that "Big Four," Clark, Stock- 
bridge, Goodell and Goessmann, who, each in his own way, contributed so 
ably and loyally to the upbuilding of this institution. 

Goessmann was a contribution from the University of Gottingen, Germany, 
and was no doubt the best-trained man in the faculty of that day. He has 
left his stamp, both as a teacher and as a student of the problems of nature. 
He was familiarly known to us as "Dutchy," but in our true estimate of him 
he was Goessmann the chemist, the investigator, the philosopher, the courte- 
ous and cultivated gentleman, whom we loved and still love for the good he 
has done. May he live to see erected on this campus a suitable building for 
the chemical department, which shall be known as Goessmann Hall. 

In 1871 (the year we graduated) the faculty had increased from 4 members 
in '67 to 28. Of these 28, only 10 were resident members. The remainder 
were composed of well-known lecturers, and included such distinguished men 
as Charles L. Flint, James Law, Edward Hitchcock, L. Clark Seelye, and, 
last but not least in rural law, Marquis Fayette Dickinson, a graduate of 
Amherst College, and now an honored trustee of this college. To-day the 
faculty consists of 30 resident members, besides a large staff of trained investi- 
gators connected with the experiment station, — an important department, 
which was established some fifteen years later than the college. As I stated, 
56 students were enrolled in 1867. In this calendar year of 1907 there will 
be enrolled, including the summer school and short course pupils, over 500 
students. Thus have we grown in equipment and attendance in forty years. 

The Old Guard and what they did for the College. 
In 1871 the Old Guard had completed their four years' course and received 
their diplomas. While the faculty professed to love us (and I think they did) 
as a parent loves his eldest son, yet I think they were glad to see the last of 



10 

us; for, being the pioneer class, the experimental class, we had taken advan- 
tage of our position, and had no doubt given them many bad moments and 
some misgivings for their splendid efforts in our behalf, which at times they 
must have thought were squandered on a heartless group of youngsters. 

I recall that when a non-resident member of the faculty, a Trinitarian 
minister, was delivering his Sunday sermon, some remark in it caused a smile 
to pass over the faces of some of the members of the class. The minister 
stopped in his discourse, and, looking over his glasses, remarked: "Young 
men, I see the smile of scorn curling on your lips; but let me tell you that if 
you do not accept and practice the doctrines which I have proclaimed, you 
will be eternally damned." 

It is true that some of us read the writings of Charles Bradlaugh and Robert 
Ingersoll; that some would walk miles to hear Wendell Phillips and Henry 
Ward Beecher, and would sit up nights to read George Eliot; that some ad- 
mired Horace Greeley, and voted for him in '72; that some were rank free- 
traders, and enjoyed Professor Stockbridge's denunciation of a plutocracy 
and believed in his plan of limiting fortunes; yet, on the whole, I do not think 
that we were a bad lot of boys. Like most college students, we were simply 
bubbling over with animal spirits and with some peculiar notions which we 
had imbibed from the liberals and radicals of that day, — notions which were 
soon to be modified, if not rudely dispelled, as we took our cue in the great 
drama of life. 

The Old Guard of 71, led by the "Big Four,"— Clark, Stockbridge, 
Goodell and Goessmann, — did a greater work for this institution than the 
public is aware of. In the first place, we paid our way; that is, we not only 
paid tuition (which is now free), but, under the guise of manual training, 
which was then considered necessary in our education (and I think it was), 
we dug ditches, as instruction in drainage; we cut down and uprooted apple 
trees, as lessons in forestry; we leveled Virginia fences and graded land, for 
landscape effect and education; we milked cows and groomed horses, which 
I suppose would come under the head of veterinary science and practice; we 
mowed grass and harvested corn, which undoubtedly must be classed among 
the arts of agriculture; and for all of this compulsory labor (and there were 
six hours of it each week for each boy) we never received a penny, as it was 
considered instructive manual training. 

We have here a beautiful campus. Let me tell you, friends, that the Old 
Guard, led by the "Big Four," laid the foundations for what you see to-day. 
They were the Irish and Italian laborers of their time, building better than 
they knew. Among other things, the Old Guard planted around the center 
of the campus a row of elm trees which are standing to-day, one for each grad- 
uate, — splendid specimens of their kind, and I hope truly representative of 
the pioneer class. Of the 27 who graduated thirty-six years ago, 24 are known 
to be living and in good health. Perhaps their longevity is partly due to the 
manual labor, military drill and dumb-bell practice which they were compelled 
to perform during their college course. 



11 



^'' The Strike against Manual Labor in the College. 

Probably, the first and perhaps the last, labor strike in an educational insti- 
tution occurred on this very spot. For three years the Old Guard had toiled 
and worked at manual labor, — digging ditches, felling trees, etc., felicitously 
called "educational" in the catalogue; but in the spring of 1870 we concluded 
that we had done about enough of this sort of work, and asked that we be 
excused from it, and in future, if any manual training were required, it should 
be more instructive and less manual. Had not Judge French said in his first 
report that "The manual labor required under the charter should be for the 
education of the student, and not for profit, and therefore should be graduated 
accordingly ? " 

The obdurate faculty would not listen to us. We sent a petition to the trus- 
tees, which probably never reached them, for the "Big Four" were a law unto 
themselves. The resiilt was that we struck, and packed our trunks. Then 
negotiations began. A meeting of the class was called at the chapel, and pre- 
sided over by our class president. President Clark was invited to attend. 
He came, — which was a very great mistake on his part, as he soon discov- 
ered. We presented our case, and Clark replied in no unmeasured terms, 
declaring that we were in rebellion against the college. Then it was that our 
honored Wheeler, now a member of the Board of Trustees, — who, by the 
way, had been excused from manual labor in order to assist in teaching the 
lower classes in mathematics, — rose to the occasion and punctured the claim" 
that we were in rebellion by putting this leading question: "Mr. President, 
do you consider it rebellion to demand the fulfillment of the contract plainly 
set forth in the catalogue, that the manual labor required would be in the 
nature of manual progressive training?" 

This brought President Clark to his feet with the remark, made in consider- 
able heat, that he ".had not come there to be lectured to;" and drawing from 
his pocket that famous document of recantation and promise of immediate 
obedience to college authority, under the penalty of expulsion, and producing 
the wherewithals for its immediate signature, to wit, a pocket inkstand and pen, 
he marched out of the room, with that air of command of which he was so 
capable, and which we are agreed generally so well and worthily became him. 
It is my recollection that not a single man signed the famous document of 
recantation, but that we all stood firmer still for our rights. 

We struck, as laborers usually strike, at a crucial moment. It was the spring 
preceding the year we were to graduate, — and what would a college do with- 
out a graduating class ? Days elapsed, and letters came pouring in from our 
parents at home, directing us to desist; but we displayed no flag of truce. 
Finally, through the diplomatic and friendly offices of "Prof. Stock," 
"Dutchy" and "Farmer Dillon," the obnoxious document of recantation 
was withdrawn, and assurances were given that manual labor would be limited 
to progressive and educational lines if we would return to the next labor exer- 
cise. We agreed to this compromise, and soon after the announcement was 
made that class work for the senior year would be abolished. 



12 



A Lesson from this Strike and the Duties of the Faculty. 

I have dwelt at some length on this episode in our college life in order to 
draw a lesson from it. After a period of thirty-six years I look back with no 
regret for my part in that strike, still feeling that we were in the right. My 
experience since then in dealing with men, and as a member of the Board of 
Trustees, has shown me that we can count upon any given group of young 
men, if they are not vicious, as likely to be fair and just in their conclusions; 
and I want to say to the trustees, and especially to the faculty of this college, 
that in my opinion the benefit of the doubt should always be given to erring 
boys, to the end that they may be saved chiefly from themselves. 

K the pioneer class had been expelled because of the labor trouble, it would 
have ruined the future of many of that class and would have been a great 
blow to the college. While rules and regulations are necessary, and while 
education is primarily mental and moral discipline, yet these are but dry 
husks if they are not mixed with the "milk of human kindness," with gener- 
osity, with consideration, and with a careful study and appreciation of the 
characteristics and tastes of each individual composing the student body. 
Some day we shall study the boy and his capacities and tastes as much as the 
things we teach him; and some day we shall bend our efforts to discover what 
he is best fitted for, in order to develop him for his proper field of labor. By 
this method we may not turn out as many well-rounded gentlemen as the old 
school of training developed, but I believe we shall send out men better fitted 
to take up and carry on the world's work. 

Let me say especially to the president and faculty of this college, as I have 
the right to say, after forty years' connection with it, that in my opinion your 
duties do not begin and end with the lectures which you prepare and deliver. 
Your duties, and particularly your responsibilities, begin with the boy who 
comes to you as much for guidance and sympathy as for instruction, and they 
do not end until he has received his degree at your hands. To study, direct 
and encourage the individual of the student body, as well as to instruct him, 
should be the end and aim of every teacher, whether he is employed in the 
graded or preparatory schools or in the higher institutions of learning. I am 
glad to state that within a month a committee of the trustees has instructed 
the dean of the faculty. Professor Mills, to visit Princeton College for the pur- 
pose of studying the tutorial system which President Wilson is trying to intro- 
duce in that institution. We wish him success, for we believe a reform is 
needed in the manner of reaching and molding the individual student, — 
needed as much here as at Princeton. 

The Land-grant Colleges and their Mission. 
As you all know, the Massachusetts Agricultural College is one of the thirty 
land-grant colleges established under the Morrill act of 1862. These land- 
grant colleges, particularly in the Western States, have grown to be great 
democratic universities, and are so vigorous and original in their methods 



13 

and in their work that they are giving the eastern institutions of learning some 
valuable lessons, and, I fear, some unhappy moments. Without traditions, 
and without the conventions which traditions always impose, these agricul- 
tural colleges and State universities of the west are demonstrating that educa- 
tion can be made both vocational and cultural, and that while the study of the 
classics is desirable, it is not necessary to turn out a well-rounded man. The 
battle is on between the old and the new school of education, with the pros- 
pect that the old school will gradually move into the field and adopt the methods 
of the new. As an index of this movement, witness the development in the past 
few years of the technical and vocational courses in connection with the classi- 
cal colleges and schools of the east. 

Our humble institution, being placed in a small State and competing with 
a dozen colleges and technical schools, one of them the oldest and richest in 
the land, was compelled to "blaze" a path for itself. It was a wise policy 
which determined that It should be an independent agricultural college from 
the start,— not in the narrow sense of teaching agriculture alone, but in the 
broader sense of teaching all the natural and applied sciences which are re- 
lated to agriculture, and at the same time, while training men along voca- 
tional lines, of giving them as liberal an education as possible, in order to fit 
them to be good citizens and to do their part in society. In other words, the 
trustees have sought from the start to fulfill the requirements of the deed of 
gift from the general government, namely: — 

To maintain at least one college where the leading object shall be, without ex- 
cluding scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach 
such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in 
order to promote the Uberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the 
several pursuits and professions of life. 

Our first two presidents, French and Chadbourne, clearly saw the scope and 
future of the institution, and marked out the course which it should pursue. 
Chadbourne, in his report to the Legislature in 1867, clearly set the pace, as 
follows: — 

The fear is expressed by some that, if an attempt is made to give a truly liberal 
education, the students will turn aside from agricultural to other pursuits. Un- 
doubtedly some of them will. If such an education is given in practical science, as 
ought to be given in such an institution, there will be a demand for its students as 
teachers and in other professions. And it would be an education entirely un- 
worthy of Massachusetts, and contrary to the plain intent of the act of Congress 
donating the land, if it were so meagre in its requirements that the students should 
be fitted only for one pursuit in life. No surer way could be devised to defeat the 
very end for wliich the college was established, than to conduct it on a plan which 
proclaimed, in theory and practice, that its students were to be kept in ignorance 
of certain things, lest they should be above their calling. No institution can ever 
succeed on such a plan, and it ought not. It is difficult to see what a student would 
enter such an institution for. 



14 



The Whole State is our Class Room. . 
Judge French said, in '66 : — 

The objects of institutions of learning are twofold, — the diffusion and the ad- 
vancement of knowledge. 

adding : — 

When our classes are filled and our organization completed, let our motto still 
be progress. Let us pursue our study beyond the mere instruction of classes in 
their prescribed courses, and endeavor, by careful experiment in the field and 
careful investigation in the study and the laboratory, to make discoveries in science 
and to enlarge the boundaries of existing knowledge, fixing no Umits to our re- 
searches but the Umits of finite intelUgence. 

Thus, in addition to educating resident students, who have been few in 
numbers until recent years, we have done a yet greater work. For years before 
the estabhshment of the experiment station we were carrying on instructive 
experiments for the benefit of the farmers, and our faculty were lecturing at 
farmers' institutes throughout the Commonwealth. In 1882, through wise 
legislation of the State, the third experiment station founded in this country 
was established on these college grounds, and it has taken up and carried on 
the work where the college faculty left it. This station, now a department of 
the college, is reaching out to every farm and farmer in the State to-day, as 
in the past; so we are not only training resident students in our class rooms, 
but the whole State is our class room, into which everybody is invited to come, 
whatever his calling or station in life, and we will help him if we can, and espe- ' 
cially if he has troubles which come in our line; and who does not have such 
troubles, whether he owns a shade tree or a forest, a garden patch or a thousand 
acres ? 

It must be remembered that we are the State college, — the "people's col- 
lege," as President Clark said in his first report, — not founded for any par- 
ticular class, but for all classes in the Commonwealth. In 1867 the pioneer 
class contained representatives from all walks in life, — sons of lawyers, doc- 
tors, farmers and others; and such has been the case in each succeeding class 
to the present day. Likewise, the college has turned out men trained for al- 
most every station in life, as both French and Chadbourne said it should do, 
to be worthy of the State. 

Has the College fulfilled its Mission? 
We know that the time has gone by when a boy is sent to school or college 
to be kept in ignorance of certain things, in order to be better prepared and 
retained for a special calling in life. We know that the young student is not 
now sent to Amherst College to be trained for the Trinitarian ministry, or to 
Harvard College to be trained in the Unitarian faith, but to be broadly pre- 
pared for any pursuit in life. So students have not been sent to this institu- 
tion for education in agriculture alone, because that happens to be its title; 



15 

nor have we kept them ignorant of other things, for fear they might stray to 
other pastures. Such a plan, if allowable, presupposes that the son must fol- 
low in the footsteps of his father; that a man born of a carpenter must follow 
his father's trade, whether suited to it or not. Jesus was the son of a carpenter, 
but he left his father's workshop to become the great Teacher of the human 
race. Boys will be sent here, or should be sent here, not to be molded or 
warped into something for which they are not fitted, but to be made the most 
of; and if we have turned out, in the past, great engineers, leading journalists, 
or men fitted to be judges in our highest courts, as has been the case, it is to 
our credit, for it shows the breadth and excellence of our training. 

Let it be understood that we hold in this institution that the study of agri- 
culture, with all the sciences and arts which are related to it,- — and what 
sciences and arts are not related to it ? — can be made a cultural as well as a 
vocational means of education; that, while it is well to know Greek and Latin 
and the great classics -of literature, these are not absolutely essential to develop 
a useful and cultivated citizen. Let it also be known that, while we have edu- 
cated professional and business men, and shall continue to do so, the great 
majority of our graduates have taken up some form of agricultural work or 
some pursuit allied thereto. Thus have we fulfilled the mission of the insti- 
tution, namely, "To promote the practical and liberal education in the sev- 
eral pursuits and professions of life;" but at the same time we have kept at 
the front and thoroughly taught "such branches of learning as are related to 
agriculture." 

Why have we not sent out more Graduates? 

But we are often asked why we have not sent out more "Aggie" graduates? 
There are many reasons. Forty years ago, if it took courage to become the 
president of this institution, as it did, it certainly took courage on the part of 
the young student to come and remain here, when the tendency of the times, 
and in many cases the home influence, was against it, and in favor of classical 
education. I remember an older brother of mine saying to my father, "What 
does Bill want to go to the Agricultural College for, unless he intends to be a 
farmer?" And at that time who would start out as a farmer in the east, per- 
haps on borrowed capital, in competition with the west and its cheap lands, 
and when other occupations seemed to offer pleasanter and richer fields ? 

Some day this college will be a popular institution with all classes; but, it 
must be remembered that it has never been a fashionable institution, and I 
hope it never will be, for when fashion touches a school or a college — or a 
church, for that matter — it usually ceases to be democratic and becomes 
exclusive and moribund; then its hour has struck, and the janitor can put up 
the shutters, lock the door and go home. It must also be remembered that 
this college has never had as feeders a certain great group of exclusive and 
inbred preparatory schools where a boy is enrolled at his birth. 

Further, the teachers of the high schools in our State have not been in full 
sympathy with us, for most of them are graduates of the old colleges, steeped 
in the old-school notions, and naturally they have influenced boys to go to 
their favorite institutions. Neither has the press been wholly in sympathy 



16 

with us, because its editors are largely college-bred men of the old type, and 
to this day some of the papers persist in printing our name in lower case; even 
the agricultural press at times has been lukewarm. And as for the farmers, 
for whom the college was supposed to be established, they have contributed 
until recently less than half the students. But what could we expect, when 
the farmer himself, and his wife and daughter, discouraged at the outlook, 
have not wanted the son and brother to follow in the footsteps of the father? 

In the face of such conditions, is it any wonder that our growth has been 
slow, even if it has been healthy and sure? We must not congratulate our- 
selves, however, that this healthy condition is due to our good management, 
for, being human, we have erred at times. The growth and success which we 
see to-day is largely due to the fact that there was a need for this institution, 
especially in the jBeld of experimentation; that there was a demand for the 
kind of training it offered. Its courses of study and its practical work in the 
field appealed to the common-sense of a large number in all stations in life. 
Thus it is not strange that our students have come from the city and the town, 
as well as from the farm. 

If it had been thoroughly understood that the education offered at this 
college is broader than its name, or rather that its name is broad enough to 
include nearly all branches of knowledge; that a graduate need not necessa- 
rily be a farmer, but is well fitted for other pursuits, — many a discouraged 
farmer and his family might have cast their influence for us, and thus we 
might have drawn a larger proportion of our students from the farm than has 
been the case. Now, however, that agriculture in all its subdivisions is looking 
up; that the public are realizing that a scientific farmer can be a practical 
farmer and a cultivated man as well; that he is to be, as he was in the early 
history of this nation, a controlling factor in shaping its course, — the farmers 
and others in the State are sending their sons here in greater numbers; and 
before the next forty years come around, I predict that this institution will 
be crowded with young men desiring to study agriculture for the sake of 
agriculture, as well as all those branches which help to make useful and 
patriotic citizens. 

No doubt the social status of an educational institution has a great influence 
upon its attendance and the student body. Here at Amherst, in the State 
college, it will have no influence whatever. The test will be. What are we 
doing for the nation which founded us and the State which supports us ? In 
fact, this should be the test of every educational institution, for no one of them, 
whether public or private, can be independent of the State. Following the 
lead of some other countries, notably Switzerland and France, why should 
not the State, through its Board of Education, have oversight of all its schools 
and colleges, that it may know what its youth are being taught ? In this, our 
only State college, the Governor appoints the Board of Trustees, and the 
secretary of the Board of Education is a member by virtue of his ofiice; and 
under its charter the course of study is subject to the approval of the Governor 
and Council. 



17 



The Future of this College and its Debt to Amherst College. 

I am reminded by the circular announcing this meeting, that, while the 
historic and anniversary aspects will not be disregarded, "the outlook is 
towards the future." It is never safe to prophesy; but with the establishment 
of the normal department, which is to be opened this fall, for training teachers 
that they may introduce nature studies in the common schools of the State, 
particularly in the rural districts, and with the introduction of agricultural 
high schools, one of which has already been opened in Petersham, we antici- 
pate that much of the academic work which we now have to do will be elimi- 
nated, and that at no distant day we shall deal chiefly with the larger and 
higher educational problems; that men will do their academic work before 
they reach us, and will come here for advanced training in the natural and 
applied sciences. Who knows but that one day we shall be a college for ad- 
vanced or post-graduate work in all departments of education, and that Am- 
herst College, on yonder hill, will be a preparatory school for us I 

But let me hasten to say that the Massachusetts Agricultural College, and 
agricultural education in this State and in the nation, owe more to Amherst 
College than the public realizes. An examination of the records shows that 
in 1850 Dr. Hitchcock, then president of Amherst College, and Marshall P. 
Wilder, then president of the State Senate, were commissioned to visit and 
study the agricultural institutions of Europe. Dr. Hitchcock wrote the report; 
and some of the recommendations, particularly in relation to agricultural 
schools, are as sound and useful to-day as they were when published, fifty- 
seven years ago. The first practical outcome of this investigation, chiefly 
carried on by Dr. Hitchcock, was the establishment of the Board of Agricul- 
ture, — the first to be founded in America, — which prepared the way for 
the agricultural college that was incorporated fourteen years later. 

As President Hitchcock's report was pubUshed broadcast, it is more than 
likely that Senator Morrill of Vermont read that report, and perhaps gained 
from it the inspiration which led him to introduce into Congress in 1857 a 
bill requesting that "public lands be donated to each State which provides 
colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts." Consideration 
of this bill was postponed because of the civil war, but it was finally enacted 
in 1862; and to it we owe the great, democratic land-grant colleges of this 
country, such as Cornell University and the universities of Iowa, Michigan, 
Illinois and Wisconsin, — in fact, we have one in every northern State. 

As far back as 1843 we find Prof. Charles W. Shepard listed among the 
faculty of Amherst College as lecturer on agricultural chemistry and miner- 
alogy; and in 1852 the college offered a course in agriculture, independent of 
the regular college courses. Again, in 1853 President Hitchcock proposed to 
the Board of Agriculture that farmers' institutes, like teachers' institutes, be 
held throughout the State, — a suggestion which was not carried out until 
many years later, but which has now been adopted throughout the country. 

Amherst College was of very great assistance to this institution in its early 
days. She not only gave us the use of her splendid laboratories, museums 



18 

and library, but in my time she loaned us many of her able faculty as lecturers 
and teachers. Thus did the old college help the new college, as well as the 
cause of agricultural education throughout the country. Therefore it is but 
fitting that this debt to Amherst College and its great president, Edward 
Hitchcock, pioneers in agricultural education, should be acknowledged at the 
fortieth anniversary of the opening of the Massachusetts Agricultural College. 

The "Bucolics" and the "Intellectuals." 
Forty years ago the Amherst students called us the "bucolics," and we 
retaliated by calling them the "intellectuals." I do not know what epithets 
there may be to-day between the students of the two colleges, but I am sure 
that the colleges are not jealous of each other; that if they ever had any dif- 
ferences they have buried them; that the faculties of each are meeting and 
associating on common ground; that the students are in friendly rivalry in 
athletics, — to use a bucolic simile, that the two colleges have met in the great 
common pasture of human knowledge; that they are browsing and ruminat- 
ing together, chewing the "cud of wisdom" in the encouraging sunlight of 
the present day, drinking at the refreshing springs of truth for the nourish- 
ment of the human race. 

Looking, then, far into the future, who knows but that some day, in the econ- 
omy of effort and for the common good, these two colleges, the old and the new, 
will be united into a great university, under some appropriate name, as the 
Massachusetts Agricultural University, with a college for academic training, 
a college for agriculture and applied sciences, and such other colleges as a 
well-ordered and modern university should contain, — a broad, progressive 
university, which shall be to this Connecticut valley, this great and growing 
center of education, what Gdttingen University is to Germany, and what 
modernized Oxford (the first college to teach agriculture) will be to Great 
Britain ? 

Our Debt to Harvard College and Other Institutions. 
I ought not to close this address without acknowledging our debt to other 
colleges for the presidents and teachers they have sent us and for sympathy 
and co-operation in various ways. It should be remembered that Harvard 
gave us our fourth president, Charles L. Flint, a man of fine mind and superior 
scholarship, who was the first, and for twenty-seven years the distinguished, 
secretary of the Board of Agriculture. She has also contributed many infiu- 
ential trustees, who have given time and money to this institution. But I 
think the finest thing that Harvard men did for "Aggie" men was in insist- 
ing that our degree of Bachelor of Science should be recognized in the Uni- 
versity Club of Boston, — and let me say it was recognized largely through 
the efforts of Samuel Hoar, then a "Fellow of Harvard College," who rarely 
knew defeat. For this kindly act, as just as it was generous, we were very 
grateful; although a small matter, it was significant of the change in feeling 
of college men towards the State college. As indicating the feeling of college 
men to-day, I wonder if the degrees of the other land-grant colleges and State 



19 

universities are now accepted in all the university clubs throughout the coun- 
try? 

We must remember that, while Amherst College gave us our two leading 
presidents, Clark and Goodell, yet that Dartmouth, Williams and Brown 
each contributed a president, — in fact, that nearly all the well-known sources 
of scholarship and scientific training have contributed to the upbuilding of this 
institution; and we are proud to say that we are now able to reciprocate, to 
return in kind, and that we are sending our sons to be presidents and professors 
in other institutions. 

President Butterfield and his Mission. 

It has remained, however, for the Michigan Agricultural College, a sister 
institution, which has recently celebrated her fiftieth anniversary, to train for 
us our ninth and last president, Kenyon L., Butterfield, a grandson of a Ver- 
mont farmer who migrated to Michigan many years ago. He is one of our 
own kind, as it were, — one who, if not an honored alumnus, is an " M. A. C." 
man. Born on a western farm, brought up in a rural atmosphere, steeped in 
the belief that the trained mind should go with the trained hand, he comes 
to us a thorough convert to the idea that the study of agriculture, in all its 
varied branches and with its historic and storied associations, can be made the 
channel of cultural as well as vocational training; that a student trained 
under these influences, on a college farm, is more likely to seek and enjoy 
rural pursuits and a country life than one trained in the old school. 

He comes to us, at thirty-eight years of age, out of the great, democratic, 
vigorous west, a return in kind of what the east has sent to the west, full of 
virility and hope, and with large vision of the future. Although a quiet, un- 
assuming man, he gives promise of being a forceful and successful president. 
May he be blessed with abundant strength and years to carry out his plans, 
and may his chief success he in holding the college to the spirit and purpose 
for which it was founded; for we believe that this college and all the other 
land-grant colleges should strictly follow the provisions of the government 
act which created them, keeping agriculture, mechanic arts, manual training 
and military science well in the foreground; and that, if they do so, these 
thoroughly democratic State institutions will be tremendous factors in the 
development and redemption of this republic. 



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